Toilet from Down Under uses 90% less water

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Australian mechanical engineers Tom Trainor and Mark Hutton have come up with a patented design called the Evolute, claimed to use 90% less water than a conventional toilet.

Trainor and Hutton say their new design uses less than one litre of water per flush, as opposed to the usual 6 to 12 litres for conventional toilets. It also takes up 30% less floor space than a regular toilet.

However, the new toilet is still in the development phase, with a commercial model only expected by 2012.

At the centre of the new toilet is a rotating metal sphere that seals off the opening to the sewer line at the bottom of the bowl. The top of this sphere has a hollow bored into it, creating a cup-shaped depression.

Waste runs into this cup; then when the Evolute is flushed, the metal sphere is rotated upside down, releasing the waste into the drainage pipe.

A jet of water rinses out the cup before the sphere rotates back up, while another rinses the sides of the bowl. As with conventional toilets, there is a small pool of water retained in the cup when it is used.

Both the rotation and the water jets are powered by the hydraulic pressure of the water mains, so no electricity is required.

As sewer gases are blocked off by the sphere, and not by water, no S-bend or cistern are necessary. The Evolute simply discharges straight into the sewer line, eliminating the larger volume of water required for a conventional flush.